I Can't Believe It's Here!

Well, it's now Marathon Week! I can't believe how fast it's come. The last few weeks our training has been on the decline to get ready for the big week. We walked 10 miles on Saturday and were supposed to walk 12 the week before, but got rained out (we were huddled under a tree calling Dan to come rescue us - we looked like 2 drowned rats!). Today we did 4, tomorrow 3, and Thurs. and Fri. we'll do 2. Pretty easy stuff from here on out! We leave Saturday (Dan and Liz's husban Kevin are coming) and I'm so grateful Dan's mom can come and hang out with the kids so Dan can come to Porland too. I picked a bad Saturday to go, Emilee has a double header and snacks, and Brianna has pictures too. It will be a busy day. We had dinner last night with some friends who are from Portland and they were telling us all of the places we had to go see, especially Dan and Kevin while we're doing the marathon. One place they said they had to go was the rose gardens, that they are amazing. I can't wait to see pictures on Dan and Kevin in the rose garden, people will know for sure that Dan has a "partner"!

Well the kids are well into their sports seasons and I don't even have any pictures! My camera isn't a very good one and taking pictures far away and of action don't turn out very well! Braden's football team is 2-2, losing their last two games. The whole team is pretty down, they're not used to losing. The teams we've been playing are HUGE! I don't know how 3 of the kids on the las team we played made weight! Brianna's team is doing well. She scored a goal the last game by the goalie picking up the ball and rolling into the goal. Brianna must have kicked it really hard!:) Emilee's team is just happy to be there. They are in a recreational league and have their good days and their bad. She sure likes soccer though. Some of her best friends are on her team which makes it a lot of fun. I just wanted to write and catch up on a few things since it's been a while.I'll post again next week since I'm sure I won't be able to walk and will be spending a lot of time at home sitting down!

Dan's Alaska Trip

Dan went to Alaska a month or so ago, and I just now got the pictures back. He only had one of those little disposable cameras, so the pictures aren't that great and there are only a few of them, but here they are! Here are the boys getting ready to head out on their charter boat.
This is dan with one of the deck hands. This is the daughter of the captain of the boat. I'm betting she's not a real girlie-girl.
Here is the gang with the catch for one day. Their limit was 2 halibut each, but they caught a ton more than that. They had a live cooler thing (I don't know what it's really called) that kept the fish alive and they'd just swap out the smaller ones for bigger ones. They caught mostly halibut but did come home with a little salmon. I found a really yummy fish taco recipe for halibut that is my new favorite thing - yum!
Here is a picture of a whale - good shot, right? It really is there, you just have to look out far!
This is a shot of a mama moose and a baby crossing down the river from where the guys were fishing (these disposable cameras need tele-photo lenses). This picture also gives just an idea about how beautiful Alaska is. I'm glad Dan got to go and enjoy time with his buddies and to get away for a while. The next getaway I vote there should be a beach, a tropical drink with an umbrella, and I get to go!

The Dunk Tank!

Here is Braden throwing balls at the dunk tank (see previous post). There was a huge long line all night to get a chance to dunk the youth of the ward.
Here he is after taking his turn in the tank. I didn't even know he was going in, or I would have taken pictures! It was about 8:00pm here, the sun was going down, and it was starting to get cold, can ya tell?
Danni is doing her favorite thing here...eating hot dogs and watermelon. I think those are her two favorite foods.

Carnival Time!

I helped put on a carnival for our ward about a week ago. It was a lot of work, but I think the kids had a blast, we'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Here's Brianna and her friend doing the 3 legged race.
We brought our neice McKenzie and she was more than happy to take Danni on the cute train.
This is Dad after the adult pie-eating contest. He was by far the cleanest face there (does that suprise anyone?), but he didn't win!
Braden gave his all in the baby bottle drinking contest. It took over 8 minutes for the winner to finally get done. We should have let Danni give it a try!



After all of the skits and performances on the stage, Brianna got on stage and started dancing to the music and it just kinda turned into a dance party! Even Danni got in on the fun. There was also an inflatable obstacle course, a hair spray booth, 9 carnival games, and a dunk tank (I'll post Braden's pictures next, I still can't figure out this whole blogging thing - I can only put on 5 pictures at a time!). We figured we had about 400 or so people there. It was a great turn-out and we couldn't have had better weather (I got fried! Between 2 soccer games and the carnival set-up, I was outside from 8:00 in the morning until 9:00 that night - without sunscreen!) It was a lot of fun and totally worth the long term skin damage!

Only 3 Weeks Left!

Well, I only have 3 weeks left until the big day - Portland Marathon. I am so nervous. My friend Liz just signed up to go with us...I'm more nervous for her than for me because she hasn't really been training, but she's confident so I'm sure she'll do great. Tina and I accidentally walked 17 miles yesterday instead of the 16 we set out to do. It turns out I'm not a very good navigator. (It's a mile more from Fuller Park to my house than I thought it was!) It was really hard, and we didn't quite make it in our goal time (2 minutes over). It's hard to believe the marathon will be 9 more miles than that...wow...I'm scared. Now Dan and the other hubbies are talking about going which would be great. I've always kinda pictured him there at the end when we finish (I might need someone strong enough to carry me back to the hotel, I wonder if they have wheelchairs). Hopefully that works out. The last few months have gone quickly, and I will be really glad when this is all over. It takes soooo much time and I'm sure my family will be glad as well.